They broke the deadlock in the 40th minute, when Junya Ito raced down the right flank and found Osako who tapped in from inside the box to put his side 1-0 ahead. Forward Kubo Takefusa penetrated into the penalty area in the 22nd minute, but his close-range shot was denied by the post. Japan had 78 percent ball possession and 14 shots in the first half. 'We had a preliminary plan when Zhang couldn't play, the young defender Zhu played a very good match and executed our tactics well.' His injury seems very severe and he will go through PCR test tomorrow,' Li said in the post-match press conference. But they suffered an early setback as veteran center back Zhang Linpeng had to be stretched off just five minutes into the match due to a waist injury and was replaced by Zhu Chenjie. Both teams were eager to get their qualification campaign back on track.įacing Japan, the highest FIFA ranked team in Asia, Chinese head coach Li Tie fielded five defenders in the starting line-up. Yuya Osako's first-half goal helped Japan beat China 1-0 in the final round of the FIFA World Cup Asian Zone qualifiers on Tuesday.Ĭhina came into the game after a 3-0 defeat to Australia, while Japan were stunned by Oman 1-0 in their opener of the final qualifying round.

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